By Near Aidoneus Island in the South Pacific, the battleship Hagane oversees the salvage of a piece of the White Death Cross. Tetsuya Onodera asks why Kenzo Kobayashi wants it and Daitetsu Minase says he doesn’t know, but they need to take it to Izu base. On the Shirogane, Bullet works on a report about the Einst when Excellen comes in and asks him about it. He says they weren’t Aerogators and that Eri thinks they’re some kind of monster or demon. Excellen grabs a picture of Bullet and Kusuha Mizuha from his desk and wonders when it was taken. Bullet demands it back and turns around to discover Excellen is only wearing a towel. She puts the picture between her breasts and when Bullet tries to grab it, he trips and pulls her towel off. Bullet runs away and Excellen studies a picture of the Einst, wondering what it is. Elsewhere Kyosuke also wonders why he and Excellen were the only ones to hear the voices. Lamia enters and he asks her how she knew the Einst had made a spatial jump. Lamia says the aliens had similar technology, but Kyosuke says if the readings were the same the Shirogane would have noticed it. He asks if she knows what the jump technology is, but Lamia says it was just intuition before leaving. At Izu base, Ryusei and Aya Kobayashi talk about an upcoming mock battle before meeting with Viletta Vadim, Raidiese “Rai” Fujiwara Branstein, Robert Hajime Ohmiya, Kai Kitamura and Latooni Subota. Ryusei finds out that Latooni will be his opponent in the mock battle and Kai says it’s because in the Aggressors she’s the best at breaking in new units. Ryusei points out that Kai and Latooni are the only Aggressors and Kai invites Rai to join, but Rai says someone in the SRX team still needs babysitting. Viletta says that she and Aya are staying behind to help Kenzo. On a Killer Whale class submarine, Archibald enjoys some tea and tells Yuuki he has people following the Chokijin and they should be thankful to Colonel Van Vat Tran for providing them with the submarine and a second chance. Yuuki declines Archibald’s offer of tea, and Archibald admits he likes the color of the tea because it looks like blood. Doctor Cuervo Cero enters the room along with Seolla Schweizer and Arado Balanga. They introduce themselves to Archibald, but Seolla doesn’t approve of Arado’s attitude. Archibald isn’t impressed but Seolla tells him that she and Arado are from The School. Archibald leaves them in Yuuki’s care and the three of them leave. Archibald says he thought all those from The School were dead, but Cuervo explains that after The School was disbanded they went to the DC and received further training at the Earth Cradle. Archibald asks if they’ll be of any use and while Cuervo says Seolla will be fine, he has doubts about Arado. Archibald then asks why bring the both of them and Cuervo says they’ve been conditioned to work in pairs.
Ryusei launches in the Arblade and notes it feels lighter than the R-1. Rob explains that if they tried to mass produce full spec R-1s the cost would end things before they started. Latooni arrives in the Wildfalken and the mock battle begins. They fire paint rounds at each other and both manage to dodge before Ryusei’s rifle is hit. He drops it and pulls out the Arblade’s blade tonfas. DC forces approach the area and Seolla vows to herself to rebuild the DC and find her other School friends. Arado is unable to fly straight because of the boosters attached to his Lion and Seolla chews him out for it. Yuuki warns them to pay attention or risk dying. Yuuki muses that Archibald is testing him as well. Ryusei dodges Latooni’s attacks and then throws a tonfa at her. He then grabs his discarded rifle and throws that too before jumping and tackling the Wildfalken to the ground to win the match. Kai scolds him for being rough with prototypes and that he’ll have to repair them himself. Rob asks for Ryusei’s impression on the R-Blade and Ryusei says that adding a cannon and a Tesla Drive would give it a good balance. The DC units suddenly appear on the radar to everyone’s surprise and Kai orders Latooni to fly back to Izu. She flies away and Carla’s group go after her. The Wildfalken’s Tesla Drive was damaged in the battle, so Carla easily catches up to it. Seolla and Latooni exchange shots and recognize each others’ maneuvers. Kai uses his Gespenst to take out some Guarlions and tells Ryusei to go help Latooni. Seolla catches Latooni and forces her to land while Carla holds off Ryusei. Seolla and Latooni exit their machines and are shocked to see each other. Seolla concludes that Latooni is being forced to pilot and holds her at gunpoint, telling her to get away from the Wildfalken. Seolla’s eyes suddenly go blank and she shoots Latooni and gets into the Wildfalken. Carla retreats with Seolla but before Yuuki can do the same the ATX team arrives. Yuuki leaves and Lee notes how the Guarlion is in visual range but doesn’t appear on the radar. Ryusei makes sure Latooni is okay and wonders why they only took the Wildfalken when the R-Blade was a prototype too.
This episode introduces some old faces, some new faces, and some future plotlines. First we have the Hagane pulling up the remains of the White Death Cross, which is the codename for Judecca, the Aerogator mecha from the last war. Then we have the obligatory fanservice scene with Excellen teasing Bullet with her boobs. I could name several people who envy him fiercely for getting an unobstructed view of the Promised Land. Excellen has some serious things to ponder, though, as does Kyosuke. He tries to get some answers from Lamia but she suspiciously dodges the question. The SRX team returns in full, though sadly Aya suffers from horribly animated breast syndrome. Introduced are Arado and Seolla, Latooni’s old friends from The School and this leads to a none-too-happy reunion, kicking off a sometimes annoying storyline. The battle scenes here were all pretty decent, though nothing spectacular. An adequate build up episode.
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